TV & RADIO

FIRST Popstars, now production company Screentime is developing Gaystars
which aims to create a contemporary version of those ultra-camp disco doyens the
Village People.

A Screentime spokeswoman confirmed the company was developing the project
after news of the series leaked out at the international television market
conference, MIPCOM, two weeks ago.

The reality series, which is being made with an international partner, is
tipped to go into production before the end of the year.

This will no doubt be music to the ears of those men who are reportedly
inundating Channel Ten with applications to appear on the Australian version of
US hit Queer Eye For The Straight Guy.

After all, Queer Eye only needs five fashion-conscious gay men whereas
Gaystars will audition hundreds before culling them down to the final group.

This is your life, again

WITH Mike Munro's contract to Channel Nine due to expire in November, there
has been plenty of speculation about whether the former A Current Affair host
will re-sign with the network.

Munro publicly declared that he would not worry if he never returned to the
television industry but our sources at Nine say he won't vanish from our screens
any time soon.

While Munro has not signed on the dotted line, Nine expects he will return to
the network to host This Is Your Life next year.

Executives are probably watching what has happened to the UK version of the
program with interest. The BBC canned the nostalgia fest last week after almost
50 years on air in which its audience dropped from a peak of 20 million viewers
to just 3.5 million.

Producer cooks up success THE restaurant reality genre is running a close
second to the renovation reality genre in terms of success with 18,000 couples
registering to appear on Seven's new series, My Restaurant Rules.

Seven's production team is sifting through the applications and production on
the show is expected to start in December.

``When I started Survivor 31/2 years ago, they told me it would never work
and now it's one of the most popular shows in the US and we're working on the
eighth series," he said. ``When I said I was going to produce The Restaurant,
they said it would never work and I said, `Well, that's exactly what you said
about Survivor'."

Burnett is currently preparing the second series of The Restaurant, set in
New York chef Rocco DiSpirito's upmarket eatery, as well as working on a new
show, The Apprentice, in which 16 young people compete for a job with
multimillionaire property developer Donald Trump, the new series of Survivor and
All Stars Survivor, which will feature past winners from the show.

Lunch with bite

CHANNEL Seven head of news and current affairs Peter Meakin has evolved into
something of a legendary luncher since decamping from Nine earlier this year.

First he was spotted breaking bread with Nine's Anna Coren , who has since
joined Seven and will host Today Tonight over summer.

Then he was spotted dining with none other than Coren's erstwhile newsroom
colleague Leila McKinnon , who has since announced her engagement to Nine's
deputy CEO David Gyngell . We presume this means she will stay with the network.

Now Meakin has moved on to the national broadcaster, with word that he shared
a meal with the ABC's Asia-Pacific satellite service newsreader, Jacinta Tynan,
at a restaurant frequented by TV types just around the corner from Nine's
Willoughby HQ.

It was hardly the most discreet spot for a quiet chat but then Meakin's
fondness for stirring things up is well documented.

Reg shows us the ropes

MATTHEW Johns, better known as The Footy Show's Reg Reagan and Trent the
flight steward, has signed to host his own show for Channel Nine.

Johns will present Sydney Getaway, a local spin-off from Nine's long-running
travel series Getaway.

The show, which premieres this afternoon , features reports from the existing
Getaway team of Catriona Rowntree , Sorrel Wilby , Ben Dark and Brendon Julian
.

Rhett who does give a damn

AFTER appearing on Seven's Home And Away as schoolteacher Paris Burnett
earlier this year, Adelaide actor RhettGiles has moved to the studio next door
to work on All Saints.

Giles worked on a few episodes of All Saints last year and clearly made such
a good impression that he's been invited back for a semi-regular gig.

Giles returns to the Seven medical drama this Tuesday, playing firefighter
Michael Plummer.

OOPS . . .

* Live television is fraught with peril as the producers of Channel Ten's
ARIAs broadcast discovered on Tuesday. Singer Amiel Daemion , performing her hit
Love Song, managed to replace the lyric ``another stupid love song" with the
original line ``another f---ing love song". While we're sure no one in the
audience blushed, we don't know about the viewers at home.

TUNED IN

McLeod's Daughters, Nine

Births, deaths and marriages are usually guaranteed ratings winners and so it
was with the funeral of Claire McLeod (Lisa Chappell) on Wednesday. The episode
drew the show's highest figure 1,701,915 viewers nationally and even managed
to out-rate the previous week's episode in which she died in a nasty ute
accident.

TUNED OUT

Rugby World Cup: Argentina v Romania, Seven

With the business end of the Rugby World Cup still a few weeks away, Seven's
coverage has yet to reach its ratings potential. This less-than-nail-biting game
was watched by 317,014 nationally, trailing Ten's Oprah Meets The Queer Fab
Five special (870,125) and Nine's Without A Trace (1,454,076).

The best photography from The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. more photos

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